The Unique Childhood of a Hummer

growing up near Center City Philadelphia in America's little known, but extraordinary orphanage for fatherless boys. Charles Dickens and Mark Twain would have recognized much of a Hummer's life: physical punishment without any appeal for justice, some cruel conditions and humorous escapades and adventures roaming about the nation's third largest metropolis and the world's largest city park. A newbie quickly learns that, for the next 8 to 10 years, he can depend on only one person ─ himself. From Fifth Grade on, he loses his first name and responds with his last or a number. No one even asks Did you do your homework? Hummers, from six to seventeen, are totally responsible for their decisions and actions.